The Silo Effect: Content Development Built Around Keyword Segmentation

Posted by Mark Thompson - January 29, 2009 - SEO - 11 Comments

As we all know, content development is a big part of any successful SEO strategy. That is why your initial keyword research is so crucial. If you optimize content for keywords that are not being searched, than what’s the point?

The key is to identify silos or groups of searched keywords that are related to each other and develop pages for each set of keywords. Not only will your pages be better optimized for search, but they will be more targeted for the end-user.

For Example:

Let’s take a company that sells awards and engravings. On their website, they have 3 pages devoted to their products. They include Corporate Awards, Crystal Awards, and Sports Trophies. For each of those pages they are very well optimized for those keywords and are seeing some nice traffic. However they may be missing out on lots more!

Now in my keyword research I noticed other similar keywords to Corporate Awards that were being searched often.

I noticed that the root word “desk clock” was being searched a lot, with different words appended to it. This tells me that I should devote a page strictly to desk clocks I sell.

Round Desk Clock

Triangle Desk Clock

Engraved Desk Clock

Desk Clock Award

For crystal awards I found that people were searching for “crystal paperweights”, along with other types of paperweights. So this tells me that I should develop a page devoted to paperweights.

Crystal Paperweights

Glass Paperweights

Marble Paperweights

Diamond Paperweights

I also noticed that people were searching for specific types of sports trophies. This tells me that I should develop pages for baseball, football, hockey, etc….

Baseball trophies

Baseball Awards

Baseball Player Trophy

Baseball Team Awards

If you take this same concept to whatever products and services you sell you should start to see an increase in the number of keywords you are ranking for. The “silo” concept is directly related to optimizing for the long tail.

b2b_long_tail

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About the Author

Mark Thompson

Mark is the creator of StayOnSearch and president of Search Creatively, a full-service Internet Marketing Company located in Raleigh, North Carolina. He also contributes to many industry related blogs including Search Engine Journal and is active on Facebook and Twitter.Follow Mark on Twitter

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